WEC: Hartley leads Toyota 1-2 in Portimão qualifying

Brendon Hartley and Kamui Kobayashi claimed Toyota’s 20th ever FIA WEC front-row lockout to ensure they start 1-2 for tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Portimao, the second round of the 2023 FIA WEC.

The Kiwi driver scorched to a best lap of 1m30.171 in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to beat his stablemate and boss Kobayashi by 0.273 seconds.

The two Ferrari 499Ps will start from the second row of the grid, with the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse driven by Nicklas Nielsen in third place with a best lap  of 1m31.596.

James Calado took fourth, ahead of the No. 6 Porsche 963 Hypercar driven by Kevin Estre, while Nico Mueller in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 took sixth place.

LMP2 saw high-drama as Mirko Bortolotti fought back from technical issues and one of his laps being deleted to take the category pole by 0.001s, the smallest margin ever for pole in LMP2. It was also Prema’s first ever WEC pole.

Corvette on Pole in GTE-Am

Following up on a stellar showing to open the FIA World Endurance Championship a month ago at Sebring, Ben Keating put Corvette Racing on pole position in GTE Am for Sunday’s Six Hours of Portimão – a new event to the powerhouse GT racing program.

Keating saved his best lap for last in Saturday’s 15-minute session with a 1:41.362 (102.713 mph) pass around the 2.891-mile, 15-turn Autodromo Do Algarve circuit in the No. 33 Mobil 1/SiriusXM Chevrolet Corvette C8.R that he will share with Nicky Catsburg and Nico Varrone. The trio already has made a splash this season with a home victory in the 1,000 Miles of Sebring in the first GTE Am event for Corvette Racing.

Algarve is the only one on the WEC calendar that is new to Corvette Racing, although Keating helped team engineers establish a couple of baseline options during his first session at Chevrolet’s DiL (Driver in the Loop) simulator at the GM Technical Center two weeks ago.

Those efforts proved valuable as the team was able to quickly work though some predetermined chassis tuning options throughout the three practice sessions to get the Corvette in shape for Keating’s magical pole run. The work also secured one additional championship point for the No. 33 Corvette team in the GTE Am Driver and Team championship standings.

The Portimão track isn’t the only new element to the weekend. The C8.R is running with an extra 30 kilograms (approx. 66 pounds) of success ballast: 15 kilos for winning the season-opening 1,000 Miles of Sebring and another 15 kilos for leading the class championship, per the GTE Am sporting regulations.

BEN KEATING, NO. 33 MOBIL 1/SiriusXM CHEVROLET CORVETTE C8.R – GTE AM POLE-WINNER: “I expected the Ferraris to be up front. In all the practice sessions they were the quickest car, and we weren’t quite sure what we were going to be able to do. I have to give so much credit to the Corvette team. The C8.R has never been to Portimão, and neither has the team. This is not a place where you show up and do well from the beginning. We’ve been making unbelievable, big improvements in the car every time we go out. I couldn’t believe how well the car was set up for qualifying. It’s going to be a big job of managing the tire wear. We made the gamble of qualifying on the soft tires, which we can’t race on but it’s nice to have that little bit of extra grip when you’re doing a 15-minute session for a qualifying lap. It was an exciting qualifying for me, as well. I went across and did what I thought was about as good a lap as I could do, and it was on the pole. I decided to do a cool-down lap because my tires had gotten hot. Then I think (Diego) Alessi in the Ferrari got in front of me and maybe Sarah (Bovy) also. I knew I had to do another big lap, and it was an incredible feeling to put it all together after letting my tires cool back down and put in another great lap. Before the session, Martin (Haven, WEC TV) we talked about if it was going to be another battle between Sarah and myself. I said no way and that Ferrari was going to be up there, and neither Sarah nor I would be up there. I got to the end of qualifying and saw we were P1 and P2; my first thought was that Martin was going to call me a liar!”

Race outlook and starting out front: “That was our decision to go with the soft tires because track position is so important here. I have found that I may be a half-second quicker than the car in front of me, but I can’t get around them. The series also has changed the rules for track-limit violations compared to what we’ve had previously, so I believe track-limit penalties are going to play a big role in the race. It’s really difficult in a GTE car to follow another car and not get track limits in Turn One or Turn Four, especially. So starting up front is going to be a big advantage by just being able to manage your own track limits and control your own race.”

Qualifying Results